U–Pb detrital zircon geochronology and source provenance in the Moroccan Meseta (Variscan belt): A perspective from the Rehamna massif
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Mehdi Jouhari; Francis Chopin; Mohamed El Houicha; Jean-François Ghienne; Karel Schulmann; Jitka Míková; Michel Corsini
- Source
- Journal of African Earth Sciences
Journal of African Earth Sciences, 2022, 194, pp.104610. ⟨10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2022.104610⟩
- Subject
- Moroccan Variscan belt
[SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences
Detrital zircon geochronology
Geology
Rehamna
Paleozoic
Earth-Surface Processes
- Language
- ISSN
- 1464-343X
1879-1956
International audience; Metasandstones from early Cambrian to early Carboniferous stratigraphic successions were sampled in the Rehamna massif of the Western Meseta in Morocco. The early Cambrian sample shows a single Paleoproterozoic population at ca. 2 Ga suggesting a local basement source. The Ordovician sample is largely dominated by a Cryogenian-Ediacaran population and minor Paleoproterozoic peaks. The Devonian sample reveals age populations similar to NorthWest African Cambrian to Devonian age spectra indicating that the southern-derived West Gondwana source essentially pertained up to the Devonian. The two early Carboniferous samples show more heterogeneous zircon age spectra with a marked Ediacaran peak [2] accompanied by Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic sub-peaks indicating important reorganization of the drainage systems. One sample also shows presence of Upper Devonian to early Carboniferous zircon grains, which suggests local magmatic sources associated to the formation of intracontinental extensional basins. The comparison of detrital zircon spectra with paleogeographic reconstructions indicate that the early Carboniferous change in detrital zircon sources can be interpreted in the framework of the opening of the Paleotethys ocean with coeval erosion of orogenic topographies linked to the emplacement of a Mid-Variscan Allochthon, and/or collision of an Avalonian indenter to the north.